This spectacular study of a parade helmet, inspired by an antique model but close to Renaissance bourguignottes, should be placed in the sumptuous context of the Gonzaga court in Mantua. Its ornamentation of acanthus leaf scrolls is related to the various decorative art projects carried out by Giulio Romano (also sometimes called Julius Romano) for the court of Mantua, where he settled from 1524 onwards. This drawing is extremely unusual, as to our knowledge it is the only surviving helmet project by the artist.
- Giulio Romano, Raphael's favorite pupil and official artist at the Gonzaga court
Giulio Romano was born in Rome in 1492 or 1499; his entourage preferred the diminutive Pippi to his family name (Gianuzzi), but he later adopted Romano, in reference to his hometown. He entered Raphael's studio as an apprentice in 1514, and became a painter in his own right, painting most of the frescoes in the Chamber of Constantine in the Vatican apartments of Leo X. On Raphael's death in 1520, he became heir to his workshop, completing the paintings left unfinished by his master, such as the Transfiguration.
The production of a series of erotic drawings inspired by Ovid led to Giulio Romano's disgrace with his papal patrons: the short-lived Adrian VI, then Clement VII. No longer welcome in his native city, the artist moved to Mantua, where he remained until his death. Arriving in October 1524, he became the official artist of Marquis Frederick II, who appointed him Prefect of Buildings, the highest artistic and architectural responsibility in the territory. Like many Renaissance artists, Giulio Romano's responsibilities included decorating the city, paving streets and designing fortifications, as well as creating precious silver objects to adorn the Gonzaga tables and parade weapons.
Between 1526 and 1534, his main work was the Te Palace, for which he designed both the architecture and interior decoration.
2. Description of the drawing and comparable artworks
Our drawing shows a parade helmet adorned with acanthus leaf scrolls, the crest of which is adorned with a triple row of ostrich feathers. This helmet is inspired by an ancient model that already appears on the head of the figure of Mars, probably painted by Giulio Romano himself around 1517-1518, in the fresco of the Council of the Gods, on the vault of the loggia of Psyche in the Villa Farnesina in Rome .[1]
A helmet with a crest very similar to that in our drawing appears in another painting by Giulio Romano executed before 1536, depicting Alexander the Great.
While the most prestigious gunsmiths of the Italian Renaissance, Vincenzo Figino and his disciple Filippo Negroli (1510-1579), were both based in Milan, Caremolo Modrone (1489 - 1543), also from Milan, moved to Mantua in 1521, where he developed a gunsmith's workshop that also produced luxury armors, such as the one attributed to Charles de Gonzague in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
In this context, Giulio Romano undoubtedly supplied several projects for the manufacture of luxury armor, as witnessed by the shield for the apotheosis of Charles V, kept at the Real Armeria in Madrid, whose design by Giulio Romano is preserved at the Teylers Museum in Haarlem, or the sword design for Frederick II of Gonzaga kept at the British Museum. In this respect, it is interesting to compare our drawing with the parade bourguignotte made by Filippo Negroli in 1543 and preserved at the MET.
Acanthus foliage is a recurring motif in Giulio Romano's drawings, as can be seen in both this Acanthus Frieze in the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts and the one in the British Museum.
While Giulio Romano's other helmet drawings seem to have disappeared, this one certainly inspired Filippo Orso or Orsoni (1519 - 1561), an artist active in Mantua whose numerous drawings of parade helmets, horse or stirrup ornaments and other works executed around 1554, some ten years after Giulio Romano's death, have been preserved in the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Brunswick Museum. The two drawings reproduced below both seem to be inspired, with variations, by the helmet we are presenting, thus confirming the Mantuan character of our design.
Filippo Orsoni's sketchier style rules out the possibility that he is the author of our drawing. On the other hand, it seems entirely possible that it was he who carried out the rather skilful early restorations in the upper feathers of our drawing.
3. Framing
For this drawing, we chose a 16th century Italian cassetta-type frame in carved and gilded wood, decorated with a running frieze of foliage motifs reminiscent of those on our helmet. This frame was exhibited in 1931 at the Exposition internationale du cadre du XVème au XXème siècle organized by Serge Roche at the Galeries Georges Petit.
Main bibliographical references:
(A cura di) Barbara Furlotti & Guido Rebecchini - Giulio Romano - La Forza delle Cose - Marsilio Editori - Venezia 2022
Roberto Lodi et Amedeo Montanari - Répertoire du cadre européen – Editions Galleria Roberto Lodi - Modena